We Need A Little Christmas

Greetings, everyone.

I know, I know - WHAT?!?!  She's actually still alive?  

Yes, gentle readers, reports, or thoughts, of my demise / disappearance, have been greatly exaggerated, as the saying goes.  While life has continued to be a lot, I placed myself under a forced sabbatical at the end of August.  Since the beginning of 2021, the emotional tightwire of my life has had me at dizzying heights and seen me falling off into dark depths.  My sister's cancer diagnosis and fight, my father's decline and death, COVID stealing Rudy and Toby from Culley's wedding, Rudy's parents' needs taking me out of my own life for three months, and the constant vigil-via-distance over his father's decline - it's all been an erosion of the brain, my heart, my patience.

Now, there have been beautiful moments, ones I have clung to tightly these past months.  Culley's and Sean's wedding, the honor of officiating, wedding dress shopping with Kendall, Culley being pregnant, Toby exceling in the professional art sphere, and right now - eagerly awaiting the arrival of Marlowe Belle Marder.  I am thrilled to say that sometime in the next 10 days or so, I will be in the delivery room with Culley and Sean, welcoming that little girl and marveling as I watch my baby become a mother.

Since I last wrote in this space, there has been so much going on in this world of ours. 

COVID is still on the move, do not let anyone convince you otherwise.  This virus is ramping up again with new strains, just ready to disrupt the merriest of holiday plans.  This month alone, our country has lost another 7,991 people.  We are averaging 350 deaths a day.  And while that is obviously better than this time last year, try telling that to the 350 families each day who now face an empty chair at the Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hannukah/insert-all-observances table.  Boosters are widely available, gets yours.  PLEASE.

Yes, I am well aware of all that is transpiring in the Trumpesphere - January 6th committee subpoena,  the E. Jean Carol rape lawsuit, his endless and dangerous rallies, the top secret paperwork found at MAL.  And I know I could have been writing endless pieces about Mango Mussolini, but I honestly just needed a break from being so angry all the time at this keyboard.

And DGMS started on BTS having to essentially disband for the next few years for military service...

But I digress...

I worry about the upcoming midterms.  That our national patriotism is so badly broken that we see candidates like Kari Lake and Herschel Walker still standing a chance of winning is galling.  You have people like Newt Gingrich telling us in one breath that Walker can be forgiven his transgressions because he obviously suffers from having been hit in the head too many times as a football player, yet in the next breath he insists he is just what is needed in Congress.  We, the people, do not even remotely matter.  To them, it is all about regaining and retaining power.

And that power, should it be handed back to the GOP, threatens to endanger so very many people.  From transgender children being denied treatment options, to their parents being arrested as child abusers, to women being denied abortions under all circumstances - I can only beg - VOTE. Vote for all those in the crosshairs.  You simply cannot purport to be an ally and then vote for those who would hurt people like my son.  So, please, get out and vote.  Vote early.  Help your neighbors vote.  We sit on the edge of a cliff of fascism, and our votes are the only thing between us and an unrecoverable fall.

So, yes, much has been going on and will continue go on, but today, in coming back to the keyboard, my heart is lighter, my attitude brighter, and my hopes for another Yes, Virginia season have me humming one of my favorite holiday songs, We Need A Little Christmas.

Haul out the holly
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again
Fill up the stocking
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now

Amazing to say, but as we sit at the end of October, I am not rushing things at all.  Yes, Virginia takes time.  And the first step is your help in getting out the word, sending those who need our help to my inbox.  

For we need a little Christmas, right this very minute
Candles in the window, carols at the spinet
Yes, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute
Hasn't snowed a single flurry, but Santa dear we're in a hurry

We all need the spiritual lift, the twinkle lights for the soul we always feel as we come together and remind those in need that the good people still outnumber the bad in this world.  

Climb down the chimney
Turn on the brightest string of lights I've ever seen
Slice up the fruit cake
It's time we've hung some tinsel on the evergreen bough

My inbox already has some whose chimneys were ripped asunder by last month's hurricane, whose twinkle lights have no evergreen bough to hang upon because of our current uncertain economy.  We can help.  We will help.

For I've grown a little leaner, grown a little colder
Grown a little sadder, grown a little older
And I need a little angel sitting on my shoulder
Need a little Christmas now

OK, the leaner part is a constant work in progress, but the colder, sadder, older?  Well, I daresay I am singing this portion to the choir.  This is our opportunity to come in from the reality cold, gather around the DGMS tree, and, crow's feet be damned, smile at one another as we let those little angels find their home on our shoulders.

For we need a little music, need a little laughter
Need a little singing ringing through the rafter
And we need a little snappy, happy ever after
We need a little Christmas now

The time is now.  Our chance to reach through the ether and effect real change, life real spirits, make some happy ever after for those who need it most.  

I will be heading to Texas for the baby, but this endeavor is one that goes with me wherever I am.  My laptop is in my Sorento sleigh, and the elfing magic can happen anywhere I am.  Even in a rocking chair with my new granddaughter on my shoulder.

So, step one - please begin letting me know who in your world needs some help making magic this year.  

And step two - donate if you can.  It's never too early, and the days are going to start flying by.

Donation methods:

Paypal > [email protected] > please do it as Send Money, not as a purchase.  If you do it as a "purchase" they withhold a portion of your donation.

Zelle > [email protected]

Venmo - @Linda-Sharp-29 

And if you prefer to send a check, please email or message me for details.

Thank you all for your patience as I went AWOL, for your emails and messages checking in, and as always, for being the amazing people you are.  Now, let's make some magic.  Again.